We stereotype forces of nature as destructive elements: earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados. But nature is not so one-sided. For every push there is a pull. For every episode of DE-struction there is an equal and opposite sequence of CON-struction. Balance, equilibrium, and in equilibrium, stability.

In April 2015 in a small village within Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, a young father named Aditya clasped his two year old daughter to his chest while a tremendous force of nature shook the Earth, decimating their shelter; instantly transforming home into heap. Miraculously, not a stone touched them. Uninjured, Aditya jumped up and pulled out several of his neighbor’s, alive, from beneath the wreckage of their own shelters.

In July 2015 I landed in Kathmandu to perform structural assessments of damaged shelters in the outskirts of the valley. On my first day, a metaphysical force led me to encounter Aditya. He promptly dropped what he was doing, rebuilding a temporary shelter for his family, and began leading me through the damaged homes, serving both as guide and go-between, allowing me to perform assessments of nearly 100 homes and temples.

Amidst the rubble and mud, with Aditya by my side, I witnessed a force of nature which countered the destruction; the force of altruism; citizens were helping each other demolish damaged homes or rebuild new ones, comforting those in mourning, performing daily acts of compassion, and sharing their meager resources.

When I saw people bivouacking in their yards besides their collapsed homes, a new concept of shelter swelled within me, for these people had a pure appreciation of the most sparse definition of shelter. They took pride in their crude spaces. They were quick to unfurl a poster of Ganesh and tape it to the corrugated metal paneling or hang a chain of marigolds from the bamboo rafters. I was welcomed into each abode and offered tea, juice, or rice liquor. Their shelter was not a roof with walls so much as a way of being, putting the needs of others before their own.

When a force is ubiquitous, such as gravity, it is called a law, rather than a force, of nature. Likewise, sharing, re-distribution, are also laws of nature. At a sub-atomic level, molecular structures bond covalently to achieve stability and thereby form the building blocks for all of matter as we know it. Upon this basic, loving principle, all of the physical universe is founded.

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you, Whitman declares.

Our current notion of shelter is ill-conceived. We’ll go to absurd lengths to decorate, manicure and maintain our own homes, but what do we do for the Earth as a whole, the shelter for all mankind? Our houses are but aediculae residing within our collective home, this planet.

We design and erect these aediculae. We label colossal shelters as impressive, beautiful; shelters with many empty guest rooms containing empty beds while millions go homeless and bed-less. Wasted spaces. Spaces that serve little purpose beyond housing the specter of personal insecurity or “the lust for comfort”, as Gilbran labels it. Modern-day mansions -- altars of inequality, shrines to our indifference for the well-being of our fellow human beings.

As design professionals, as compassionate humans, let us be the ones to alter society’s definition of shelter and design mindfully and compassionately, with the whole on our mind rather than the individual, refrain from excess and use the remainder for good.

Idealistic, you will say, but a vision must be an ideal, else it plateaus. Impractical, you might say, but a small rudder turns a cruise ship. You can’t go camping for a weekend and expect the utopian peace of Walden in return.

Let our habitual design practices be the asymptote that approaches ever-nearer to equality and diversity. Above all, let’s be cognizant and thoughtful, and challenge the status quo.

If the citizens of Nepal could withstand the most destructive external forces of nature and harness the internal forces of the human spirit to overcome and rebuild, then surely we can find it within ourselves to re-direct our habits to help shelter those in need.

Aditya told me over some homemade rice beer at the end of our first day together. White, black, brown, Muslim, Christian, Hindu. No matter. We are light.

“Forces of Nature” was published by GIANY in A Shelter for Architecture.